Fey, the star and creator of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, has been one of the strongest forces in comedy for the last 10 years. She gives voice to decent, hardworking people who are trying to make it through life without being pulled under by their own neuroses. In 1999, Fey left the Chicago improv world to serve as the first female head writer of Saturday Night Live and, eventually, “Weekend Update” co-anchor. She also banged out the screenplay for Mean Girls. Fey is always great, even in American Express commericals.

I read an interview with you and Alec Baldwin in Interview magazine, and it seemed like that talk was actually the first time you discussed doing a show together. Is that right?

Yeah. We certainly weren’t socializing at that time, but I think maybe I already had the idea and was starting to write with him in mind. I had already given up hope of him doing it, but in the article he agreed.

I think part of it is that he is excellent. You could put a bag of sandwiches next to him and people would say, “Oh, you work so well together. You make these sandwiches look wonderful.” I think that’s a big part of it. Mostly, I try to learn from him, because he’s such a skilled film actor.
What comedy did you like when you were a kid?

I watched a lot of different things. The Carol Burnett Show, that one night of TV that was Mary Tyler Moore into Bob Newhart into Carol Burnett, and obviously Saturday Night Live. I was a big Bill Murray fan. The first cast that I really watched at 11:30 was that one odd year, the cast with Martin Short, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest and all those guys. I liked them, and I was always a big fan of Jan Hooks.